Jeremy Clarkson dealt further blow amid pub thefts as punters flog glasses on eBay for staggering price
Stolen glasses from Jeremy Clarkson’s Oxfordshire pub The Farmer’s Dog have surfaced on eBay, with some being listed for up to £20 each after more than 100 were taken last Sunday.
The former Top Gear presenter revealed that 104 glasses disappeared from his establishment in a single day, highlighting an ongoing problem with customers believing they’re “entitled to go home with the glass in which it was served”.
The thefts add to mounting financial pressures at the pub, which Clarkson opened in August after reportedly investing £1,000,000 in the venture.
One glass from the pub appears to have been sold yesterday for £19.99, according to listings discovered on the online marketplace.
The Sun reported that one seller listed their plastic glass as “new” with a starting price of £20.
Another listing on eBay advertised two half-pint glasses from The Farmer’s Dog for £24.60.
The items appeared shortly after Clarkson revealed the extent of the theft problem at his Oxfordshire establishment in his Sunday Times column.
In his column, Clarkson detailed the extensive costs plaguing the establishment. “The theft…is extraordinary,” he wrote in The Times.
The publican revealed significant operational expenses, including “£100 a day we spend on fuel for the generator” and “£400 a week” for terrace heating.
He also disclosed spending “£27,000 a month” on parking and traffic marshals “to keep the council off our back”.
“It’s galling to see how much effort is required to make so little money on the farm. It’s worse at the pub,” Clarkson wrote, adding that while customers were coming, “turning their visits into a profit is nigh-on impossible”.
The pub’s challenges have been evident since its opening in August when Clarkson described the initial launch as “a disaster”.
“Behind the scenes, then, everything is a total disaster. But the fact is that when you go there you just wouldn’t know,” he told The Times.
The TV presenter has previously expressed doubts about recouping his investment, stating earlier this year: “This place is costing us a fortune. God knows if we’ll ever make our money back.”
Recent setbacks include selling only five of 40 Christmas turkeys ordered and requiring “chemically trained hazmat engineers” to deal with an incident in the outdoor toilets.
The pub’s struggles will feature in the next series of Clarkson’s Farm.
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The blow comes after the star admitted the staggering five-figure monthly cost he faces just to keep “council off our back”.
Detailing further the “horror” situation he’s found himself in, he recounted an issue with the toilets, commenting: “No amount of festival visits would prepare you for the horror of what had been produced at the Farmer’s Dog.
“It was everywhere and in such vast quantities that no ordinary plumbing or cleaning equipment would even scratch the surface.
“So a whole team of chemically trained hazmat engineers had to be employed. That’s a cost I’d never factored into any of my business plans.”
